Preparing carp for cooking

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I like fishing for carp, but have had no luck cleaning them and preparing them for cooking. I've heard that they're good to eat. My only two attempts at cleaning them looked like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre Meets The Aftermath of a Rocket Attack on Seaworld. Yechh! Blood and scales everywhere.

What's the trick to cleaning carp? Can you direct me to a site that shows pictures of the procedure?

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Clean them like any other fish. Just fillet them out and they are ready for the smoker. I think suckers/redhorse/tullibee are much better tasting than carp. If you agree, then the next time you can just leave them whole and saute them with garden dirt.

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A female carp,out of cold water is hard to beat.To clean them,slip-scale them,with a sharp knife,cutting against the scales,leaving the skin on,then fillet off the back bone.Flip skin-side down,and score thru the fillet,about a quarter of an inch apart,from one end to the other,without cutting thru the skin.bread them,and deep fry.There's a mud line in the middle,just eat around that.They are also good smoked or pressure canned.

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No,you really cant cut out the mudline,when you score them,cause you leave the skin intact,and just score down thru the flesh.Hen fish have a lot less mudiness to them,than the males.Make sure your knife is sharp,and cut down thru fillet,that way,you'll cut down thru the Y-bones,stop,before you cut the skin of the fillet.That way when you deep fry them the Y-bones are somewhat cooked,and they are short.

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I have eaten carp for many years prepared many different ways, but here's my favorite.

Carp Noodles, No there is not actually noodles, however, fillet the carp just like any other fish, from gill to tail. Remove the scales using fillet knife like you would a crappie. Now you have a large side of fish. Make sure your fillet knife is very sharp. Use a cutting board to lay the fish side on. Start at the tail end cutting completely through the fish, making the cuts a little less than 1/4 inch apart, working forward toward the rib cage. The pieces will be like small french fries. When you get to the ribs cut through leaving two ribs in a piece. The hair bones in the side are now so small (cut up) they will fry out completely. Batter with your favorite mix and flash fry in hot grease. Its like eating meaty carp french fries. The larger rib pieces have no hair bones so there like carp corn dogs.

Kewaunnee 8/8-8/13
My dad and I fished out of Kewaunee for about 5 days and it was slow but steady for us. Ended up 12-16 with about a dozen shakers on top of that and a couple drive byes. We caught fish in 80-165 fow but fished as deep as 370 fow with only one drive by in 312 fow for the deep run. One one fish in a meat rig, one on a flasher fly, 3(+5 shakers) on clean spoons, 1 in a spoon with a dodger and 6(+7 shakers) on a spoon pro troll 8" spin ray. We added the spinner/spoon into the spread the last 2 1/2 days. Outside of the shakers the fish ran nice but no giants with the biggest just over 19 lbs. Sog was 2.2-2.8 mph. Surface temps ran 67-73 degrees. Fish were caught 40-70 feet down.

Talking to a few other boats reports varied from 0-8 fish per trip and boats were scatteredall over the lake. Some big fish being caught and lost. Here's a few pics from our trip.

some very interesting CWD information can be heard below if you're interested to get some science behind the disease
http://www.themeateater.com/podcasts/ep-070-chronic-wasting-disease/
http://podcasts.joerogan.net/podcasts/doug-duren-bryan-richards